Wife's 4 y/o Astra Failed Steering Rack

DampCat · 10 Jul 2020 at 08:13

I think I know the answer but it's worth an ask. The wife's astra has had the electric steering rack fail. The car is 4 months out of warranty with a repair cost of £1,400. We didn't get an extended warranty as it was close to £400/year and with it being a new car, less than 20,000 miles we hedged our bets.

Is there absolutely any wiggle room via some complaints process? If it was 10 years old I'd just suck it up but I'm mostly just furious that it's such a young car with such a catastrophic failure, that's clearly nothing to do with wear and tear. It's so obviously a fault with the manufacturing.

Worth tearing my hair out over? :/

Armageus · 10 Jul 2020 at 08:22

If it's always been serviced at a main dealer, then possibly you might be able to argue a "goodwill contribution" or the like by contacting Vauxhall UK directly
https://www.vauxhall.co.uk/tools/contact-us-customer-care.html

turbo · 10 Jul 2020 at 08:59

Go down the second hand route if you get no joy out of Vauxhall themselves. Absolutely no reason why this should cost you so much. I would have thought absolute worse case scenario with a second hand rack and fitting is going to be £500’ish?

vanpeebles · 10 Jul 2020 at 09:04

Vauxhall customer service is gash, I tried that route when the improperly made clutch fork went on my Grandads car. Vile company.

Mercenary Keyboard Warrior · 10 Jul 2020 at 12:05

Whats the breakdown of the parts vs labour

How long can you afford it to be off the road as well
Its quite possible its a simple fix for a repair outfit, the garage clearly wont try that.

If its lots of labour its possible they may haggle more on that.

These guys seem to do a lot, as their prices are exchange it could be worth calling them see what they say
Is the repair to your rack if the above is not a straight swap likely to be similar price, seems £150 or so is common. But really depends if the main price is the rack itself or lots of expensive dealer hours

https://shop.westernpowersteering.co.uk/category-71.html

Stu999 · 10 Jul 2020 at 12:57

Could ask on an Astra forum to see if it is a common issue?

SeatIbiza · 10 Jul 2020 at 15:02

Steering rack fitting is fairly easy. I did one on my TT - got a refurbished unit from ebay (you send your old one back as an exchange item). I think I was back on the road for less than £150.

That price is daylight robbery. I mean god, what's that car worth? £6K? they essentially want 1/4 of the value to fix something that should most definitely have not failed so early.

gc123 · 10 Jul 2020 at 15:23

loads on the bay from 99 pounds looking at it shouldnt take a half decent garage more than 2 hours to swap out. or if you have a tool set maybe set a day and take your time

Firestar_3x · 10 Jul 2020 at 16:58

gc123 said:
loads on the bay from 99 pounds looking at it shouldnt take a half decent garage more than 2 hours to swap out. or if you have a tool set maybe set a day and take your time

Odd are it will need programming, so unless he can do that fitting at home will be pointless.

Orionaut · 10 Jul 2020 at 19:06

SeatIbiza said:
Steering rack fitting is fairly easy. I did one on my TT - got a refurbished unit from ebay (you send your old one back as an exchange item). I think I was back on the road for less than £150.

That price is daylight robbery. I mean god, what's that car worth? £6K? they essentially want 1/4 of the value to fix something that should most definitely have not failed so early.

gc123 said:
loads on the bay from 99 pounds looking at it shouldnt take a half decent garage more than 2 hours to swap out. or if you have a tool set maybe set a day and take your time

Depends, Sometimes yes, sometimes no!

Many cars, especially the more modern ones, have the rack mounted "Above" the front subframe which means that the front subframe needs to be removed before the rack can be replaced.

(With all the time consuming agro that this might entail)

SeatIbiza · 10 Jul 2020 at 19:40

Orionaut said:
Depends, Sometimes yes, sometimes no!

Many cars, especially the more modern ones, have the rack mounted "Above" the front subframe which means that the front subframe needs to be removed before the rack can be replaced.

(With all the time consuming agro that this might entail)

True, but I'd say worth it for over a grand in savings!!

On Holiday · 10 Jul 2020 at 19:43

Bring it to me, I can look at her rack for you.

gc123 · 10 Jul 2020 at 23:54

ok ill hold my hands up first

being a retired auto electrician, i would suggest you check if any local auto electricians would look at it because looking on the bay i see it is mounted above the subframe with a heatshield above it. so as its a electrical motor its possible that it may be a simple rebuild. or even a exchange. having looked into it online i cant see vauxhall suggesting a reprogram so apart from removing any fault lights it may well be a simple swap out, even just swapping the motor. i know some renaults etc need reprogramming but normally its just a flash or eeprom dump that can be switched over.
as said to save a grand i would try lol